ARC provided by NetGalley. While The Mr. Right Checklist had potential to be a charming, feel-good romance, it unfortunately fell short in delivering a captivating story. The premise of a woman following a literal checklist to find her ideal partner felt too formulaic, lacking originality and emotional depth. The plot is predictable and doesn’t offer much in terms of twists or meaningful surprises.
The characters, especially the protagonist, felt one-dimensional. Despite Foster’s attempts to create a relatable heroine, she comes off as cliché, and her personal growth throughout the story is minimal. The romance between the main characters lacked chemistry and felt rushed, making it difficult to fully invest in their relationship. The secondary characters, although humorous at times, also didn’t add much to the plot.
Additionally, the book's pacing is uneven, with certain sections dragging on while others, especially the climax and resolution, feel hastily put together.

After the tragedy of losing both her parent Destiny Amor still believes in family and love. With her part-time dog grooming job, she wants to start her own marriage proposal business. The client of her first job, a stalker to her grooming job´s client Fletch known as Grumpy Gus, becomes a monstrous disaster. She hasn't expected Fletch's help with the start of her business in exchange for being his fake girlfriend. Ryan Fletcher, a loving dog daddy who is not ready for partnership or marriage again, feels attracted to Destiny and her Southern charm more than he is willing to admit. While Destiny agrees to the due date of the end of their fake relationship, she can´t help but fall in love with Fletch´s gentlemanly attention.
Can they follow their hearts instead of their minds?

This lovely, funny story was like a balm for my soul.

♥︎𝐆𝐫𝐮𝐦𝐩𝐲 𝐒𝐮𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐞
♥︎𝐅𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠

✨Thoughts✨
𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 was such a cute story! Destiny's dream of becoming a proposal planner takes a wild turn when her first job turns into a disaster. However, a moody professor offers her a proposition: they pretend to be a couple to appease his family, and in return, he will assist her with her business venture.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 dynamic between the grumpy professor and bubbly Destiny was incredibly entertaining. Watching her shake up Ryan Fetcher's world was a delight, especially when their romantic scenes unexpectedly turned up the heat. Their chemistry and playful banter kept me engaged throughout.

𝐎𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐥𝐥, if you're a fan of the fake dating trope, this book is a must-read!

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: 𝟒⭐️
𝐒𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐞: 𝟐/𝟓🔥

The second standalone in Melissa's rom com collection, this one brings us grumpy x sunshine at its best. Destiny is a dog groomer with a dream of starting her marriage proposal planning business. She loves her furry clients, especially Molly, who belongs to "Grumpy Gus". Leave it to Fate that Destiny's first (and failed) marriage proposal will involve Grumpy and Molly! One disaster of epic proportions but that will lead Molly and Fletcher to finally know each other. 

Fletch has given up on love, but he decides to help Destiny with her business and she'll help him by going to his brother's wedding as his date. This way they'll stop harassing him into "finding someone" again. As the weeks go by, their arrangement turns into a steamy "situationship" with them becoming integral parts of each other other's lives. However, Fletcher doesn't tick any boxes on her Mr. Right Checklist and Fletcher doesn't even have a list... Maybe the stars will align and make them see they never needed any list. 

A very sweet yet spicy rom com that has some laugh out loud moments. If you are familiar with  Melissa, you will see some beloved characters from Harmony Pointe show up as Fletcher's best friend is Talia Dalton. I loved catching up with them!

This book is exactly what it proposes to be: a fun, heartwarming ode to love. I loved how Destiny can find a silver lining in everything. Fletcher thinks he's closed off to love until hurricane Destiny comes tearing down his walls.

Perfect for the fans of grumpy X sunshine romances with the signature secondary characters that Melissa does so well as well as the lovely fur babies! Grab a blanket, a cup of cocoa and enjoy!

Thanks, NetGalley and Melissa for the ARC. 

Content notes: mentions of loss of parents, cheating (not MCs)

The grumpy/sunshine rom-com fits this book exactly!
Destiny is a fun-loving, living life-in-the-moment girl. She is starting her own marriage proposal planning business. She is working at her friend’s dog grooming business and meets Grumpy Gus, really known as Fletch. Sunshine!
Fletch is a very organized college professor who has decided that he is never going to fall in love and get married again. Grumpy!
This is a funny book that had me laughing out loud.
Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This book was UNEXPECTEDLY SO GOOD! The spice was spicing! The heart felt moments were tear jerkers! And grumpy Gus stole my dang heart! The NICKNAMES?! Sunshine ☀️ was perfect for her! Then Molly and Clementine 🥹 I believe Molly was the true matchmaker here for sure! I am so grateful to have received this book before it officially published! Definitely loved the opposites attract, no third act breakup, heartfelt love story right here!

What a LOL grumpy/sunshine slow burn, fake dating journey to love…an all of the feels, will these friends to lovers finally get their chance or does Destiny loose Fletch due to his past? Loved it!

I absolutely love love loved this book! Destiny & Ryan’s journey to happily ever after was everything! I love a great grumpy sunshine romance. And adding in the banter and off the charts chemistry, I was hooked. Great moments of humor and heart.

I highly recommend.

I voluntarily reviewed this book.

What a joy it was reading this book. I’ve been in a year long slump occasionally picking up reads I thoroughly enjoy. I feel that it was “destiny” (get it ☺️) getting approved to read this. Whilst the tropes follow the typical oh let’s fake date to mutually help/repay each other, I can’t help but truly enjoy this book. I resonated a lot with Destiny (as an only child who’s super close to my parents — reading about how Destiny continues seeking out her parents despite them not being physically present touched me. It felt like I was looking in a mirror. I mean I never assumed I have a checklist but to see Grumpy Gus accepting AND loving her, as well as understanding her relationship with her parents? That goes to the top of my checklist. There’s so much to love about this lighthearted yet absolutely enjoyable book. It depicted grumpy x sunshine (like the fact that his nickname for her is sunshine bumped up my ratings immediately), the found family, the pets. It was such a nice, lighthearted read. Definitely recommend this!

3.5 stars. This was a cute, quick, easy read.

It’s been a while since I’ve read a Melissa Foster book, but this one was just like what I remember from books I’ve read in the past. I don’t want to say lighthearted because Destiny had experienced a lot of tragedy in her life which was discussed often throughout the story, but it never felt overwhelmingly heavy in the way it was written.

Destiny was an impressive character because of how positive she remained in the face of her tragic backstory. She was bit over-the-top quirky at times though, wavering between cute and borderline cringe.

I do always enjoy a story where one or both characters are so certain they know what they want (or don’t want) in a partner and they meet their exact opposite who changes everything. Destiny and Fletch definitely had that here and their romance was sweet, but they also had some very flimsy denial going on. I didn’t buy that they couldn’t both tell they were in a real relationship by the time a forced “breakup” came. The end was very cute though and I enjoyed it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Montlake for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an easy and quick romance read, with great banter between the two main characters, but at times the dialogue would just be cringy. I also think this book had too much dialogue in certain parts so then it just became annoying. Overall, I feel like the characters and the plot were entertaining however, even though the characters had great banter, the romance just really lacked in this book.
2.75

The cover and the then the author sold me on this right away, and throw in the adorable title. Melissa has an adorable story here but I did find myself having parts where I was easily distracted and not connecting as easily. There was so much about it that I wanted to love but found it more difficult to get fully into.

I really loved this.  It was such easy story to read and if you love a grumpy-sunshine, small town, slow burn story  you will love this too. Destiny and Fletcher fabulous characters, really loveable. They are total opposites; Fletcher is quite reserved and he is all about work and Destiny likes to live in the moment but they have this connection with lots of witty banter.   If you are looking for a little spice with tons of emotion, then this is the story for you.

Cute rom-com!! Grumpy, divorced professor falls for a bright cheerful southern girl. She believes in love and finding her one by a checklist she has made. And he meets nothing on it. I enjoyed this book except the nickname he gave her.

This book was so good, and I was not ready for it to end! So many times in the book did I laugh really hard, a few times I full on cried. Fletch and Destiny's love story was written so well that I really was sad once it was over and wanted to continue on and watch their entire lives unfold on paper.

I love Destiny's entrepreneur spirit, and the proposal business that was made for her was so unique and very fun!
Watching Fletch come out of his shell and open his heart again felt like such a special thing to witness. It was so well done and I didn't feel like it was too drawn out.

The slow burn in this book was not the spice, but in fact the realization that they were both in love with each other and not just having a friends with benefits fling.

I can not wait for everyone to fall in love with Fletch, Destiny and the entire gang of side characters like I did! Thank you Melissa Foster, Montlake Publishing, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book!

This book has EVERYTHING.
Literally. While it's a grumpy x sunshine knockout, there are so many tropes it borders on ridiculous but wildly entertaining. Someone gets sick. There's an overheard conversation. Will they get it out of their systems?!

Either way, it was an enjoyable read made better by the best dog ever. Fans of Melissa Foster will devour this. 3.5 stars.

The Me Right Checklist was a book I could not put down. I loved the characters and how they met and got to know each other. This was truly a wonderful feel good love story. Fletch and Destiny are two characters I couldn’t get enough of. I loved how he became more friendly and kind and Destiny was adorable throughout the book. Her zest for life was so heart warming. This is a book I will recommend to all my friends.

This was a super sweet book. I loved how the lover of love, proposal planning main character, Destiny, faced of against her grumpy Gus. While at times I found Destiny to be overly perky, I grew to genuinely like her character. The pets were adorable and loved seeing what was up with characters from previous books.

Destiny’s good nature is so beautiful and refreshing! This truly is a grumpy/sunshine story with a touch of fake dating. Fletch and Destiny’s chemistry is super hot, even if they say they aren’t each others type.

🤍Book review 🤍

The Mr. Right Checklist
by Melissa Foster

The Mr. Right Checklist is a fun, lighthearted romcom that brings together Destiny, a quirky proposal planner, and Fletch, a grumpy but lovable professor. Their “fake dating” arrangement is filled with funny moments, heartfelt conversations, and plenty of charm. Destiny’s love for romance, her adorable pets, and her emotional depth made her feel like a friend, and Fletch’s gradual shift from skeptical to smitten was so enjoyable to read.
Melissa Foster has a talent for creating relatable, well-rounded characters, and Destiny and Fletch are no exception. Their witty banter and touching moments felt real, and I loved how the story balanced humor and heart. Though Destiny’s quirks may be a bit over-the-top for some, they make her a unique and memorable character. If you enjoy sweet, feel-good romances with fake dating and lovable pets, this book will hit the spot!